Chillianis Scores Game-Winning Goal in Overtime to Give No. 12 Men's Lacrosse a 10-9 Victory Over Molloy
Box Score DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Apr. 2, 2017) – Led by the game-winning goal in overtime from sophomore Bobby Chillianis (Bethpage, N.Y./Bethpage), off an assist from senior Daniel Speicher (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford), the No. 12 Mercy College men's lacrosse team won their second straight overtime game with a 10-9 victory over ECC foe Molloy College on Sunday afternoon at Mercy Field.
The Mavericks (8-2, 4-0 ECC) have now won four games in a row and are 4-0 in ECC play for the first time in program history, while the Lions (4-4, 1-3 ECC) drop their seventh straight meeting to Mercy.
Chillianis finished with two goals and two ground balls, while freshman Joe Cortese (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Lakeland) had a career-high three goals along with an assist. Speicher netted two goals and an assist and graduate student Kevin McNally (Hillburn, N.Y./SUNY Albany) had a goal, an assist, four ground balls and three caused turnovers. Sophomore Ryan MacSpadyen (Toronto, Ontario/Seneca College) contributed two assists and freshmen Tommy McPartland (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) and John McMahon (West Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon) both added goals. Sophomore Max Littleton (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) led the defense with five ground balls and three caused turnovers. Freshman Antonio Rey (Liverpool, N.Y./Liverpool) went 9-of-16 on faceoffs and had four ground balls. Sophomore Ryan Gibbons (Seaford, N.Y./Dowling College) played the full 61:26 in goal and made 14 saves to earn the victory.
Molloy was led by Connor Slane and Jon Camposa who both scored twice, while goalie Ryan Toomey made 13 saves to take the loss.
Mercy looked to continue their winning ways and got off to a good start as McNally found the back of the net at the 12:47 mark to make it 1-0. However, the Lions evened the score up a minute later as Camposa scored. The Mavericks regained the momentum by closing the first quarter with three unanswered goals as Cortese, Chillianis and Speicher scored to put Mercy ahead 4-1 after the first quarter.
Speicher began the second quarter with a tally off an assist from MacSpadyen to increase the Mavericks lead to 5-1. Mercy looked to be pulling away from Molloy, but the visitors would not go down and closed the half by scoring three of the final four goals to make it 6-4 Mercy at halftime.
The Lions came out energized in the third quarter and rattled off four straight goals to take their first lead of the game at 8-6 with 3:10 left in the third quarter. The game seemed to be slipping away from Mercy, but McMahon got the Mavericks on the board under a minute later to cut the deficit to 8-7 after three quarters.
Mercy regained their focus in the final stanza and Cortese stepped up and tallied two straight goals to put the Mavericks back on top at 9-8 with 11:49 remaining in regulation. Molloy found the equalizer with 5:54 left in the fourth that made it 9-9. Neither team could score again in regulation so the teams went to overtime.
After Mercy won the opening faceoff in overtime, Speicher found Chillianis in front of the net and the sophomore finished in the lower left corner to give the Mavericks another overtime victory.
Mercy held a 34-31 edge in shots, a 38-30 advantage in ground balls and won 12-of-22 faceoffs.
Head Coach Jordan Levine and the Mavericks look to make it five straight wins when they play at Dominican on Friday, April 7th at 4 p.m.
